Rationale:
The
ultimate goal of reading is comprehension.In order for kids to grasp this concept, they must learn how to
summarize pieces of writing.Students
must learn to omit the unimportant information and focus on what is
really
trying to be taught.They must then be
able to gain full understanding of what they read and show this by
summarizing
what they have read.

1.Begin
the lesson by reviewing what it means
to read silently."Boys and girls,
can anyone tell me what it means to read silently? You're absolutely
right, we
read only to ourselves.Now what might
be a reason to do this besides not disturbing those around us?Good! We read silently because it helps us to
understand what we are reading, that is called comprehending what we
read!

2.Then,
introduce the comprehension and
summarization strategies. "There are a few things we can do to help us
comprehend what we are reading better, one strategy we can use is to
summarize
the text.Can someone tell me what
summarizing means? That's right! To summarize means to tell the main
part of a
text.I want everyone to look up at the
board at this chart and read along silently while I read the following
tips.Ms. Wright's Easy Peasy
Summarization Tips. First, read silently one time through.Then read it again, making sure to highlight
the main ideas.Mark out any unimportant
or repeated information.Use the
important ideas to make a web.Relate
main and supporting events.And last but
not least, sum it all up in a few sentences."

3."Now
that doesn't seem hard does
it.Don't worry I am not going to do
this by yourself yet.We are going to
read an article together and learn just how to summarize it."Put "Gorilla Rescue" on the smart
board and ask students to read it silently."Okay, so we have read it one time through.My next step is to read it and highlight all
of the main ideas.Since this is the
smart board and I can't highlight I am going to use this green smart
board
marker to underline my important information.I am going to read the first paragraph aloud and I want you to
be
listening for important information and unimportant information." Read
first paragraph aloud and then ask students for what they think is the
important information.Underline it with
a marker.Then ask students for the
unimportant information.Take a
different color marker and cross out this information.

4."Now
that we have marked out unimportant
information and underlined the important stuff, we are going to make
our
web.For our webs, we are going to put
the title of the article in the center, like this (do web on chart
paper).Now we are going to find the main
ideas and
branch them off the center."As a
class, collectively make the web using "Gorilla Rescue".

5."I
think our web looks really good.But now
we have to write our summarization
sentences. For an article this size, I should really only have two or
three
really good and developed sentences."Constructively ask students questions to get them to think about
good
summarization questions like, "Now let's think about what we put as our
main ideas on the web?How can we relate
all of these ideas?"

6.Once
you have finished, leave all of the
items on the board, then pass out the students summarization checklist.Give them all a copy of "One Man's Goal:
To Travel Around the World on His Own Power" and tell them they are to
follow the steps carefully, not missing a single one.First, give them a book talk saying, "This
article is about a man who wants to row across the Pacific in a 23-foot
long
row boat, using completely his own man power! No engine or anything!!
Do you
think he can do it? You have to read it to find out!When they are finished, they must use their
checklist to make sure they have covered every step.Be sure to leave chart and other article on smart
board so students can refer back to it.Tell students they will be turning in the article that they have
highlighted and crossed out, their web, summarization sentences, and
checklist.

Assessment:

For
the assessment, I will
circulate the room as students highlight and cross out their article.I will also look at their final pieces.Along with their checklist, I will use my
checklist to make sure they have covered all areas of summarization.